Activists from a Moscow human rights watchdog visited the suspects in the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and said they did not see signs of torture having been applied to those arrested.

The visit was in the wake of earlier allegations of violence
being applied to suspects Zaur Dadaev, Anzor Gubashev and Shagid
Gubashev following their detention.

The head of Moscow's Public Monitoring Commission (PMC), Anton
Tsvetkov, and three other activists met with the suspects held in
Moscow’s Lefortovo prison to find out they were held in
“perfect conditions,” with each one in a separate cell.
Tvetkov added the three men’s health was “not in
danger.”

“No traces of torture or beatings are recorded,” the
watchdog’s head told journalists. “The information about
tortures against [the arrested] does not appear to be
credible.”

Russia's Investigative Committee announced on Wednesday it was
looking into the matter.

“If the accused file complaints of violence being applied to
them, those will be thoroughly investigated,” IC’s press
service announced on Wednesday.

A day earlier, two human rights activists, Andrey Babushkin and
Eva Merkacheva, both members of PMC, visited Lefortovo and met
with the suspects in Nemtsov’s murder. They said the accused men
complained of having been beaten and left without food following
their detention.

Babushkin, who is also a member of the Presidential Council for
Civil Society and Human Rights, said in his blog that
“multiple injuries” could be seen on the bodies of
Dadaev and Gubashev.

The activist wrote: “There are sufficient grounds to assume
that torture was applied to Dadaev and Gubashev.”

Tsvetkov’s team of activists has doubts, however, saying that
bruises and sores are quite commonly inflicted during detention.

“Zaur Dadaev says he was tortured, including by means of
electric shocks, but we examined his body and found no traces of
it, no burns,” he said.

Shagit Gubashev says his brother Anzor was beaten with a baseball
bat after detention, but Anzor himself denies that, according to
Tsvetkov. Besides, no injuries that could be inflicted by a bat
were found on Anzor’s body, the activist adds.

The chairman of the PMC said all the three suspects he visited,
Zaur Dadaev, Anzor Gubashev and Shagid Gubashev, deny their
guilt. It was earlier reported that Dadaev confessed to being
involved in the murder.

The Investigative Committee has meanwhile said it would look into
why the activists Babushkin and Merkacheva demonstrated interest
in the details of the investigation while that was “in
violation of the law,” according to the Investigative
Committee’s press service.

Merkacheva, in an interview with RIA Novosti, dismissed the
Investigative Committee’s accusations as “absurd” and
“aimed at paralyzing human rights activity.”

Boris Nemtsov, who was
55, occupied senior government posts under President Boris
Yeltsin and afterwards became an opposition leader. He was shot
dead on February 27 near the Kremlin in central Moscow. The
assassination, which occurred two days ahead of an opposition
rally Nemtsov helped to organize, triggered a flurry of
condemnations and calls for a swift investigation.

Thousands of people across Russia joined rallies in commemoration
of the slain politician.